Visual Effects with Mark Christiansen

We will be joined by [Mark Christiansen|http://christiansen.com], artist, animator and author. His most recent book, “After Effects CS4: Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques,” covers color correction, keying, rotoscoping, motion tracking, and much more in After Effects CS4.

Google is tight-lipped about its computing operations, but the company for the first time on Wednesday revealed the hardware at the core of its Internet might at a conference here about the increasingly prominent issue of data center efficiency.

Providers of one of the more popular tethering apps for Google’s Android-based G1 handset have had their application summarily dumped from the application store, at the apparent behest of mobile operator T-Mobile.

Tethering applications have been available through the Android Marketplace for a while, but developers of Wifi Tether for Root Users report receiving an email stating that their applications breach the terms and conditions of T-Mobile and are thus being removed from the marketplace.

Yeast cells feeding on the glucose in human blood might one day power implants such as pacemakers. A living source of power that is able to regenerate itself would eliminate the need for regular operations to replace batteries.

We’re not just moving toward the day when robots can do everything for us. We’re apparently moving toward the day when we can just think about what we want done, and get it (almost) presto.

Japan’s Honda Research Institute and precision-equipment manufacturer Shimadzu on Tuesday demonstrated a rather mind-boggling technology that lets humans control a bot through thought alone—thus taking the pesky button pressing, voice commands, and remote controls out of the equation.